278 UPPER AMAZONS—VOYAGE TO EGA. Cuap. X. 
and they perspire little. No Indian resident of Ega can be induced to 
stay in the village (where the heat is felt more than in the forest or on 
the river) for many days together. They bathe many times a day, but 
do not plunge in the water, taking merely a sifs-bath, as dogs may be 
seen doing in hot climates, to cool the lower parts of the body. The 
women and children, who often remain at home, whilst the men are out 
for many days together fishing, generally find some excuse for trooping 
off to the shades of the forest in the hot hours of the afternoons. They 
are restless and discontented in fine dry weather, but cheerful in cool 
days, when the rain is pouring down on their naked backs. When 
suffering under fever, nothing but strict watching can prevent them 
from going down to bathe in the river, or eating immoderate quantities 
of juicy fruits, although these indulgences are frequently the cause of 
death. They are very subject to disorders of the liver, dysentery, and 
other diseases of hot climates ; and when any epidemic is about, they 
fall ill quicker, and suffer more than negroes or even whites. How 
different all this is with the negro, the true child of tropical climes! The 
impression gradually forced itself on my mind that the red Indian lives 
as a stranger or immigrant in these hot regions, and that his constitution 
was not originally adapted, and has not since become perfectly adapted, 
to the climate. . ' 
It is a case of want of fitness ; other races of men living on the earth 
would have been*better fitted to enjoy and make use of the rich 
unappropriated domain. Unlike the lands peopled by Negro and 
Caucasian, tropical America had no indigenous man thoroughly suited 
to its conditions, and was therefore peopled by an ill-suited race from 
another continent. 
The Indian element is very prominent in the amusements of the 
Ega people. All the Roman Catholic holidays are kept up with great 
spirit; rude Indian sports being mingled with the ceremonies intro- 
duced by the Portuguese. Besides these, the aborigines celebrate their 
own ruder festivals: the people of different tribes combining: for, 
in most of their features, the merry-makings were originally alike in 
all the tribes. The Indian idea of a holiday is bonfires, processions, 
masquerading, especially the mimicry of different kinds of animals, 
plenty of confused drumming and fifing, monotonous dancing, kept up 
hour after hour without intermission, and, the most important point of 
all, getting gradually and completely drunk. But he attaches a kind of 
superstitious significance to these acts, and thinks that the amusements 
appended to the Roman Catholic holidays, as celebrated by the 
descendants of the Portuguese, are also an essential part of the re- 
ligious ceremonies. But in this respect the uneducated whites and 
half-breeds are not a bit more enlightened than the poor dull-souled 
Indian. All look upon a religious holiday as an amusement, in which 
the priest takes the part of director or chief actor. 
Almost every unusual event, independent of saints’ days, is made the 
occasion of a holiday by the sociable, easy-going people of the white 
and mameluco classes : funerals, christenings, weddings, the arrival of 
strangers, and so forth. The custom of “waking” the dead is also ~ 
kept up. A few days after I arrived I was awoke in the middle of a 
